Having travelled as a vegan for four years now, and being someone who really enjoys eating means I've made finding the best vegan food one of my top priorities on my travels. In this time, I've travelled to many different European cities, and so I wanted to rank some of the ones I think are the most vegan-friendly.
These are all cities I've visited myself, and I'm ranking them based on how good their range of vegan options are, what the quality of the food and other products is like and how easy it is to find vegan options there. So, here are my top 8 vegan-friendly cities in Europe.
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#8 Copenhagen
The Danish capital has a small but pretty decent vegan scene. There's most stuff from fast food to raw food, as well as some pastries and desserts, and many cafés provide non-dairy milks. The main thing that seems to be missing in Copenhagen is typically Danish food that's made vegan, and vegan clothing shops.
Read my vegan guide to Copenhagen. Also consider booking a tour with a local guide in Copenhagen, and check out the hotel options in the city.
#7 Budapest
Budapest‘s vegan scene is not enormous, but it is pretty diverse. It's an easy city to find a big variety of vegan food, including typical Hungarian dishes made vegan, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Middle Eastern and Mexican cuisine, raw food, buffets, fast food and even vegan cheesemongers! What's still missing from Budapest's vegan scene is much in the way of vegan non-food items, such as clothes, shoes and cosmetics.
Read my vegan guide to Budapest. Also consider booking a tour with a local guide in Budapest, and check out the hotel options in the city.
#6 Glasgow
Glasgow is a real up and coming vegan destination, with a lot of vegan-only restaurants relatively to its size. It could even be called the vegan capital of Britain, and certainly gives cities like London and Brighton a run for their money. One really nice thing about Glasgow is that there are multiple excellent vegan breakfast options, and many of the best vegan spots are within quite easy walking distance of each other.
Read my vegan guide to Glasgow. Also consider booking a tour with a local guide in Glasgow, and check out the hotel options in the city.
#5 Barcelona
Barcelona is undoubtedly one of the most vegan-friendly cities on the Mediterranean. While the city has a historical tradition of seafood (duh, it's on the coast!), recently there's been a massive movement away from animal products and the city has even declared itself a ‘veggie friendly city', officially! There's a bit of everything in Barcelona's vegan scene, with many of the major world cuisines represented, as well as typical Catalonian fare and fast food too.
Read my vegan guide to Barcelona. Also consider booking a tour with a local guide in Barcelona, and check out the hotel options in the city.
#4 Turin
Though it's a relatively small city, Turin boasts a very diverse vegan scene, earning it the reputation as the vegan capital of northern Italy: it even has a vegan mayor! There's fast food, slow food, bar food, brunches and of course tons of traditional Italian food made vegan including incredible gelato, pizzas, pasta and pastries everywhere. The majority of what's on offer in the vegan scene here is Italian in style though, so if you're looking for world food options, it's perhaps not the most varied in that sense. Nonetheless, for such a small city, the density of vegan options is impressive in Turin.
Read my vegan guide to Turin. Also consider booking a tour with a local guide in Turin, and check out the hotel options in the city.
#3 Prague
Prague seems to have it all when it comes to vegan options. There are several places specialising in raw food, but there are also burgers, pizzas, affordable lunch menus as well as mid-range and high-end options. There are even a couple of fully vegan shops selling everything from cleaning products and condoms to shoes and groceries.
Read my vegan guide to Prague. Also consider booking a tour with a local guide in Prague, and check out the hotel options in the city.
#2 Lisbon
Libson‘s vegan scene has exploded in the last few years with loads more options everywhere and seemingly a greater understanding about what veganism is. You can get vegan pizza, burgers, Asian food, buffets, raw food and of course typical Portuguese food made vegan in Lisbon.
Read my vegan guide to Lisbon. Also consider booking a tour with a local guide in Lisbon, and check out the hotel options in the city.
#1 Berlin
Maybe I'm biased, but I still think Berlin is the number one vegan city in Europe. Now, that might change soon, with one of these other cities overtaking it, but for now, it's still the most vegan-friendly city on the continent in my opinion. Almost every café will have non-dairy milk options and probably at least one vegan cake too. There's tons of vegan fast food, burgers, pizza and sweet treats, some raw food, loads of great breakfast and brunch options, some higher end eateries and lots and lots of accidentally vegan Asian and Middle Eastern food too. It's also home to several vegan clothes shops, full grocery stores and shoe shops and even a vegan sex shop!
Read my vegan guides to Berlin brunches, cafés and fast food. Also consider booking a tour with a local guide in Berlin, and check out the hotel options in the city.
Do you agree with this ranking? What other European cities would you add to this list?
4 Comments on “Europe’s Most Vegan Friendly Cities”
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Apart from Copenhagen (haven’t been yet) I agree with your list! I would say having been back in London now nearly a year I’d nominate it for the social and events scene. London still has a lot of catching up to do in terms of shops particularly (the vegan supermarkets are minuscule compared to berlin!) but the social scene is booming. As well as the latest vegan social group in the world (the vegan meetup group), there are tons of smaller vegan social groups too: lgbtq vegans, freethinkers (philosophical group), vegans 20-35, vegans over 40, vegan families, vegan hikers, vegan yoga, vegan business owners network and a ton more… there’s now a festival almost every weekend, six vegan markets (weekly or monthly) last time I counted and when I go in the vegan events calendar there are usually 2-3 vegan meetups/festivals/supperclubs every day.!
Wow, that’s amazing! So happy that London is doing so well at some part of expanding the vegan scene.
Where’s Warsaw – the city with the highest density of vegan restaurants per capita (46 for 1.8 million people)
That’s great! Actually, I haven’t been to Warsaw since going vegan, but it’s on my list. These are all only cities that I’ve actually visited.